This week I received an email from a subscriber asking for my opinion on a particular business opportunity. She was asking what I "really thought" about it because she had been "burned so many times in past I just don't know who to trust". Sound familiar?

I've received several emails like this over recent months from people who have been dudded by charlatans who seem to come out of woodwork at mere whiff of a victim, er ... prospect. This latest one though got me wondering exactly why it is that so many people seem to be looking to make a profit from promoting or participating in someone else's business opportunity or product rather than creating their own, using their own ingenuity. And this applies not only to scams but to legitimate business opportunities (yes, they DO exist). After all, no matter how legitimate opportunity, at least some of your hard work and effort is going to benefit someone else.

Now, admittedly, promoting someone else's product (such as by way of affiliate programs) is a good way to get started in your online career, but it's not going to make you really serious money. By "serious" I mean sufficient money to represent a worthwhile return on investment of time and effort you must expend to earn significant commission income. By spending same amount of time and effort promoting your OWN business, your return must necessarily be much greater. After all, you keep 100% of profits for same work!

Why is it that some people, let alone those who have already been burned, keep looking for someone else to deliver answer to their prayers rather than creating it for themselves? Or worse, give up entirely? I'd be willing to bet that, for a goodly proportion, answer is "I don't have any products of my own to sell" or "I don't have any good ideas" or "I don't know where to start".

Now, it may be that you're just dabbling with idea of an online business and, for you, promoting a few affiliate programs while you gradually get more involved is a good place for you to be right now. Many of us started out doing exactly that. But for those of you who are ready to get into this in a serious way, have you thought about doing it for yourself? Why not let go of idea there is a perfect opportunity out there with your name on it if only you can find it, and instead devote your time and your energy to creating it using your own brainpower?

So far so good. But ... sales of what, exactly? What do you sell?

Fortunately, options are many and varied. Basically, though, everything falls into one of two categories ... products or services. We're going to take a closer look at a few relatively easy options for when you want to get started and get started NOW.

=> PRODUCTS

What kinds of products can you sell from your website assuming you don't already have something available? Your best bet is anything that can be delivered digitally such as software and information products.

When it comes to selling software or information products, you have three basic choices:

1. you can create your own product from scratch, e.g., by writing a software program, a cgi script or an e-book;

2. you can join affiliate programs and sell products already created by other people and earn a commission for every sale;

3. you can join a multi-level marketing (or network marketing) plan; or

4. you can acquire resell rights for products already created by other people and keep 100% of profit.

Option 1. is a must-do. Eventually. But when you're itching to get started, you don't want to have to wait 3 or 4 months it takes you to write your ebook before you can launch your online business.

Option 2. is great for a quick start but you're working on commission. Someone else is getting lion's share of profit for your hard work.

Option 3. is a good choice if you're a natural networker. For more information about MLM and whether it might be right for you, check out my article "Not MLM! ... Why Ever Not?" at http://www.ahbbo.com/notmlm.html .

Option 4. (along with option 3.) is where real money is, at least compared to option 2. Acquire resale rights as well as product and you're not working on commission any more -- you're working for serious profit.

Where do you go to acquire products that can be delivered digitally with full resale rights? There are several good sources but here are a few tried and true sources, each excellent places to start:

eBookPublications http://www.ahbbo.com/ebookpublications.html

eBookWholesaler http://www.ahbbo.com/ebookwholesaler.html

FreeToSell http://www.ahbbo.com/freetosell.html

=> SERVICES

What kinds of services can you sell from your website? How about advertising space in your ezine or on your website? How about a members-only area of your site, access to which requires payment of a membership fee?

=> Advertising Space

Since you really need to be publishing an ezine on a regular basis to stay in contact with, and generate, web site visitors, it makes sense to make money from something you already have to do anyway. Selling advertising space is a good revenue-generator.

Don't try selling your ad space until you have a minimum of 1,000 subscribers or so. Until you get to that point by all means offer free ads in your ezine though. That's a good way to generate subscribers and get your readers used to seeing ads in your publication. Ad swapping with other publishers during this period (and beyond) is also a good way to generate new subscribers.

Once you reach 1,000 mark, you can start offering your ad space for sale. The days when you could publish an ezine with a classified ad section of 20 or 30 ads are long gone. Ezine readers are much more savvy and discerning and, as a result, ezine advertisers are much more selective and will look for ezines that run few ads and which place them strategically amongst content, or "meat" of ezine itself rather than being stuck in a great glob that nobody reads at end.

Think also about sending solo mailings to your list as another source of revenue. Be particularly circumspect when it comes to these mailings, however. Solo mailings are very effective when targeted to right audience and so advertisers love them. Ezine subscribers have varying attitudes towards them though. Some will immediately unsubscribe from an ezine that sends solo mailings. Others will accept them so long as ezine itself is worth receiving.

Personally, I don't worry about losing subscribers just because I send solo mailings. The acceptance of solo mailings (which are, in my case, limited to one per week) is price I ask my subscribers to pay to receive my ezine for free. The advertising revenue I receive is how I pay my costs and make a profit. If people aren't prepared to receive a solo a week in exchange for ezine then they'll unsubscribe and that's fine with me because they're not prepared to make a fair exchange and were never going to buy from my advertiser anyway.